How is Cacao harvested?
The cacao tree makes fruit following a constant cycle and generally it provides two harvesting periods: before and after the rainy seasons. It takes about 6 months from pollination for a tree to produce ripe fruit. The world average harvesting is lower than 3 million tons per year. About 80% of worldwide cacao is grown in 1 to 2-hectare plantations. The yield per hectare changes a lot. There are plantations exploiting advanced techniques whose yield can exceed 2 tons, whereas others produce less than 100 Kg. The rough world average is about 500 Kg per hectare per year, where 25 fruits give one Kilo of dried product and an optimum of 800 trees per hectare.
